Getting serious about service: for many schools, an increased commitment to community service fits the student body, curriculum, and neighborhood

University Business, June, 2008 by Ron Schachter

Vicki Reitenauer, who has taught 55 different Capstone courses, emphasizes that what students produce has to meet a real need in the community. In her "Grant Writing" course, for instance, student teams work with clients such as community theaters to target multiple funding sources and adapt grant proposals accordingly.

For Reitenauer's "Educational Equity" course, Portland State seniors run the gamut from tutoring in elementary classrooms to organizing a weekly book group during lunch hour for eighth-graders. "It's incredibly exciting to see students move from being consumers of education and relatively passive to being active learners during a course," she says. "And the community benefits, whether it's grants being funded or a kid who is failing math getting a B- so he can get into college."

Portland State was one institution recognized in Colleges with a Conscience. According to The Princeton Reviews Frankel, the school belongs to a larger trend of urban universities which once faced a tough sell as students gravitated to less busy and gritty environments--that have reinvented themselves by featuring "service in their backyards." He explains, "They said, 'We have a duty to engage the local community, and what place has more contagious energy than a university, and why can't we harness that energy?'"

Capstone's Kerrigan points out that the program is helping to attract students to the university. "They certainly report it was a selling point to them," she says. "They were looking for their education to be relevant, and to be with other people who want to make connections to the community."

Life after Graduation

Those running service learning programs say that students' experiences follow them into their future careers. "They're now thinking about the community," says Tulane's Ilusture. "And they're more likely to be engaged with community service after college."

Emory's Rich knows of a former community fellow practicing poverty law in Durham; another student went on to organize migrant farm workers. Some of Reitenauer's former students have returned after graduate work to teach Capstone courses.

Portland's Kerrigan emphasizes that getting serious in college about community service can have other benefits to future graduates. "Being involved in community service brings added relevance for students, whether they want to enter corporate America or a citizens action group," Kerrigan reasons. "We don't have a motive that they should all go into nonprofits. They can bring more ethical and responsible thinking to the private sector."

SERVICE WITH A SMILE

Lessons Learned

GETTING A SUCCESSFUL COMMUNITY SERVICE PROGRAM UP and running can be daunting, agree those who supervise them. Strategic partnerships are important, offers Lynn Zimmerman of Atlanta's Emory University. "Not every community organization matches up."

Program launches call for time and flexibility, adds Zimmerman's colleague Ozzie Harris. "The real world doesn't always run Like clockwork." Nor is it always within easy reach from the campus, notes Tulane University's (La.) Vincent Ilustre, who dedicates four staffers to shuttling students to their community placements.